Defense Minister Benny Gantz will submit a resolution proposing the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the purchase of the submarines and vessels, his office announced on Saturday night.
The draft resolution that will be formulated in the coming days will be submitted following the end of the staff work in the defense ministry and in coordination with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
The committee will have the ability to examine the state inquiry “in-depth and independently, in contrast to the ministry committee” that Gantz had tried to establish in light of Netanyahu’s opposition to the state inquiry, his office said.
"I expect that this time, all government ministers will support the establishment of the committee,” Gantz said. “The question marks must not be left open, and conclusions must be drawn.”
In November Gantz had said that he would set up a government committee of inquiry to investigate the procurement of new submarines and vessels from Germany but former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to approve it.
Gantz then appointed retired judge Amnon Straschnov, who was chief military prosecutor to lead the inquiry. Alongside him, Gantz appointed Yael Grill, the former head of procurement in the Prime Minister's Office and head of the economic unit of the Ministry of Defense Production and Procurement Directorate, as well as General (res.) Avraham Ben-Shoshan, a former commander of the Israel Navy and military attaché at the Embassy of Israel in Washington DC.
According to Globes, the committee’s work was to focus on the procurement of the three new submarines and Netanyahu’s demand for the purchase of a fourth.
The committee did not start its activities due to difficulties in obtaining the powers. Then, with the announcement of the fourth round of elections, Gantz decided to suspend the efforts to establish it. Since then, indictments were filed in the case and it’s possible to establish such a committee where the evidence is legally binding.
Gantz’s office has already addressed the matter to the Office of the Knesset Speaker, Mickey Levi and the discussion on the subject will take place in the coming days.
In response the Likud said that Gantz himself said “dozens of times” that there was no need to investigate the case.
“What will change now that Gantz decides to drag the defense establishment into a political debate? It is unfortunate that even after combing through the affair with iron combs and finding nothing and after former senior members of the National Security Council testified that there was no flaw in the purchase of the submarines and vessels, Ganz continues a blind pursuit against Netanyahu and the Likud,” the statement said.
The Submarine Affair is an ongoing scandal involving a multi-billion dollar submarine deal with Germany’s ThyssenKrupp AG conglomerate over several years, including 2016, in which the political class has made accusations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite his being cleared by law enforcement.
In December 2019 and additional announcements, Mandelblit announced he will likely indict top officials close to Netanyahu and top former Naval officials for bribery to advocate for the purchase of unnecessary extra submarines and military boats from the ThyssenKrupp .
Among those close to Netanyahu and already implicated in the affair are lawyer David Shimron, a confidant and cousin of Netanyahu; David Sharan, a former chief of staff in the Prime Minister’s Office; and Avriel Bar-Yosef, a former deputy national security adviser.
Former naval chief Eliezer Marom and other top officials are also expected to be indicted.
Nevertheless, the attorney-general concluded that there is no proof Netanyahu knew about the scheme, and that at most, he pushed for buying the vessels under suspicious circumstances.
Gantz's inquiry was designed to go beyond legal standards of proof to determine if Netanyahu's conduct in the affair was unethical.
Israel currently has three Dolphin-class submarines and two Dolphin 2-class submarines (another one is expected to be delivered in 2018). The subs are said to have a shelf-life of around 30 years, making them obsolete in another 10 years.
The Israel-bound subs in question are said to have 16 multipurpose torpedo tubes which can fire torpedoes and even swimmer delivery systems. According to foreign reports, these submarines provide Israel with nuclear second-strike capabilities, carrying long-range cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. They would not reach Israel’s coast for another decade.